CIO, day after day

How frequent should my posts be ?

2005-11-02T00:57:00.000+01:00

OK... I've been kind of distracted.

Days have been busy. But now I know that I won't be able to make a daily post.

But in fact, that should be quite normal because if a CIO's life was really exciting, Hollywood producers would have made incredible movies about it :-)

Seriously, last days have been very interesting. I was able to dive into the real world.. Indeed, I was asked easy things :
Q: Is there any kind of GPS software I could download to my PDA ?
A: For your Blackberry ?
...And then I got the answer from Blackberry's website and from a friend working there !
Lesson learnt : Rely on your friends, not on commercial website...

Q: If I go to a far eastern country next week, what do I need to be able to read my emails ? Can you get me a Blackberry ?
A : Blackberry doesn't work in Japan (yet), and let me prepare your bag and a check list.
Lessons learnt :
- If you do it for one user, do it for all users (not preparing the bag with cables, second battery,... but the check list).
- Think out of the box : don't write a check list that says : PC, brains :-) Write a check list with PC, power cord, ethernet cable (spare ethernet cables are available at the IT department), mobile power adapter, telephone cable and plug. But also remind that they could need their webmail's login and password depending on where they are going and whether there is a cheap connection there.

So basically, every task is important, you just have to find what added value you can bring to make a better answer than the simple geek answer.

OK, now a personal message to my numerous readers ;-)... PLEASE POST COMMENTS I'd love to hear from you !

Under the clothes...

2005-10-22T17:56:00.000+02:00

It is high time I gave some more background information about DressMe.

DressMe is an old ready-to-wear fashion house. For years it was kept small. But lately strategy has changed and it has become one of the most popular and buzz creating reference.

Nevertheless it is still focusing on luxury pret-à-porter. Along clothes for women, it has created a very succesful line of accessories.

You can find DressMe products in DressMe's retail shops and shopping centers around the world (from Tokyo to Los Angeles).

Due to this incredible growth, the executive team made the decision to hire key management positions on the support side because administrative functions were slowing down the growth.

For example, 2 of the main business applications never changed in more than 7 years.

With the internet revolution and the shift of IT to services and business processes, it is easy to understand how interesting it is to become the first CIO of DressMe with the challenge of organizing IT and supporting a changing business model !

The longest week !

2005-10-22T12:39:00.000+02:00

5 days.. and it feels like a month or two.

Taking new responsibilities a few days before the first budget draft has to be made is a tough challenge. How do you identify problems to solve and key priorities for next year when you do not know the company or the industry ?

You work hard, you try to get a feedback from executives, you listen to some users, you contact providers, you use all your previous knowledge, and last but not least, you ask your network for help and feedback.

Let's imagine you think the ratio support quality / cost is not good enough (that could be for servers, desktop/laptop computers or business software). You have a lot of different scenarios to improve this depending on which component of the ratio you want to improve the most.
- get better support or lower need for support (renegotiate your contracts, train IT and/or business people, improve support processes,...)
- lower costs (renegotiate your contracts, replace a person by someone who costs less,..)

In this case, you have to look at current costs and their trend. You also have to look at the company strategy (strong growth, shift in the commercial strategy, future number of users,..). You can look at insourcing / outsourcing options,...

But for all thoses scenarios, you have to find potential investment and annual costs to calculate the Return on Investment. Let's be honest, it is one of the most interesting part of the job, but it is a pain in the a** when you have a week to do so !

And now, let's go back to tuesday's night to do list :
1/ Budget preparation is not completely finished (but now you understand why !). But a first good draft should be ready for the CFO on monday.
2/ RFP for the phone infrastructure is out and one of the providers already gave us some good advice to solve our temporary situation challenges. Answers are coming in next week.
3/ Maintenance questions have been solved, but there is a lot of work to do on contract review.
4/ Blackberry issues are pending (priority for next week).

I also had to :
- organize the infrastructure setup for a new warehouse.
- meet our main business application provider (commercial and supply chain processes)
- organize operational priorities

On the really bright side, a lot of project opportunities with great ROIs have appeared... More on that in the next weeks. I won't talk about some confidential subjects because of regulations on corporate information, and also because there are some straegic investments opportunities to gain competitive advantage... But I'll try to find examples to keep this blog informative and alive !

D+1, the real life

2005-10-18T23:23:00.000+02:00

Let's be honest... I didn't follow my initial working plan.

1/ First thing in the morning, I worked on some telecommunication infrastructure RFP. In fact we already have proposals, but there were no written needs.

I also began working on a financial grid so that potential providers will answer with the same level of information. For instance, we ask them the cost per unit of each kind of needed phone, as well as the total cost which should be lower than quantity*cost per unit. This will be the foundation of our purchasing negociation.

Goal of this project is to change the telecom infrastructure (PBX, phone,..) as we move our offices. Sounds easy... the problem is that we do not have much time to do so as technical spaces are going to be ready only 2 weeks before the move begins.

Moreover, as the move is going to be in multiple steps (on a 3 month period), we have to make sure that we will have a working temporary infrastructure between our sites. This means interfacing our current (and too old) PBX with the new one, making sure phone numbers are redistributed between the sites, and making sure our telecom provider builds the line according to our schedule.

2/ Meeting with the CFO
It was an opportunity to present my driving board. The CFO was quite impressed by the project list (we reviewed target dates and priorities) and the key questions [Now renamed IT radar] : what business changes or new technologies could have an impact in the next 3-24 months.

3/ Meeting with architects and moving coordinator w/ visit of the future office building
It was a very interesting meeting that helped me understand how architects worked and what kind of information they lacked.
So now we have to check that the planned air conditionning system in the server room is going to be powerful enough to cover the heat generated.

On the opposite we were able to confirm that our security needs for the server room have been taken into account :
- access control
- air condtionning
- fire alarm and protection

4/ Blackberry...
DressMe is a child company of a worldwide luxury group. This mother company has implemented a blackberry server recently.
As I am supposed to be on a 24/7 duty, I negociated a Blackberry for myself which should have been quite easy if we had a company mobile provider. But as we dont have one, I have to spend some time to see if it's possible to have a personal voice subscription with a corporate data Blackberry subscription on the same phone.

Still not complicated, and not a real 'high priority'... until the CEO decides that some people need a Blackberry before end of next week.... As it seems that it is possible only if the personal voice subscription is put into a corporate account we have to create (creation time is 3 weeks...), you get the picture !

So that was the 4th bonus activity of today.

Obiously we also had to deal with recurrent activities : support issues, sending information of our new collection to our hosting B2B website,...

So, what's next for tomorrow ?
- Budget preparation (and comparison with the last 3 years)
- Send the RFP and financial grid to providers
- Review some maintenance questions and contracts
- Try to solve the Blackberry issues

Good night !

D Day

2005-10-17T23:27:00.000+02:00

So, D day has come and gone now.. So what was up the working sleeve of DressMe ?

In fact, it didn't feel like a first day. Indeed, since 6 weeks, I have been in touch every week (and sometimes twice or three times a week) with DressMe's CFO (my new boss).

So it really felt more like "Finally a day at my desk !".

But let's step back and talk about the job : DressMe is a very succesful company. And it has been so for more than 5 years. That means strong growth and revenues.

But their IT looks like an abandoned mine field.

An IT manager was hired a few years ago. He was a project manager, but I am not looking at a very well managed department here. Financially, the budget exists only thanks to the CFO. If the company had not been in a growth period, I would guess increasing IT budgets wouldn't have made it without strong explanations.

Moreover those increasing budgets are neither linked to innovation or major changes.

So basically, there is a LOT to do... Here are a few tasks that are on the short term roadmap...

1/ Make sure the short term move of some of the offices will be a success
2/ Change the ageing financial system
3/ Prepare next year's budget

But a lot of other stuff is waiting :
- EDI
- Process optimisation
- Functional improvements
- Change of the commercial information system

So basically, here is what I am going to do :
- Respect the PDCA "method" (Plan, Do, Check, Act)
- Work hard on short term goals while keeping in mind that quick and needed decisions should be made to prepare the long term (in fact I've already begun today working on our phone infrastructure).

As of today, I've :
- dressed a list of identified projects or major activities,
- identified a set of actions to be taken to improve IT management,
- identified key questions that could impact the business and/ or the IT department.

So now I have this kind of basic "three part" driving board, until I can work on a real IT strategy plan.

What's next for tomorrow ?
- Meeting with CFO
- Visiting new office location, talking with moving project coordinator about timing, and talking with architects about infrastructure priorities
- Analysing the current IT budget (and the 2 years before)

Isn't that a nice cliffhanger for next post ?

D minus 3

2005-10-14T22:00:00.000+02:00

It's finally over !!!

After more than 8 years in a big auditing and consulting firm, here I am, free !

In fact, I won't be free for long because on monday, october 17th, I will begin my new job (and my new life) as CIO (Chief Information Officer) of a very nice fashion company.

Let's call this company 'DressMe, Inc.' (even if it will dress my wife rather than me).

From talks I already had with some DressMe executives, I understand that the day to day life will be very challenging.

As it is my first time as CIO, this blog is a means to share it.

So beginning on monday, let's discover it. Let's see a small IT department from the inside. Let's forget about gigantic projects to talk about real life, day after day !

Meet you on monday !